year: 2017
Location: Headcorn, Kent
To the street, this new house projects an ordinary, agricultural façade, common to this area of Kent. Clad in varying widths of vertical larch planks, the property could easily be mistaken for another, typical farm building. To the rear however, a thirty-five metre long, continuous curved wall of glass creates an impressive alternative. Acting as a plane of reference, taking in the views of the surrounding countryside, the property’s circulation path also runs alongside the glazing. Being single storey in design, rooms could be more informally linked, removing the necessity for the traditional ‘corridor’. The internal spaces increase and shrink in size as the curved glass grapples with the orthogonal rigour of the adjoining wall layout. As a result, only very few internal doors were needed – typically for bedrooms and ancillary spaces only.
Despite the seemingly unobvious plan, the house was developed from an extremely pragmatic brief – where simplicity of function and uncomplicated circulation routes were key to the clients. After exploring several feasibility options, the radiused, frameless glass wall stood out as the clear contender which could deliver and meet the clients’ utile requirements.
Structurally, the property’s roof cantilevers to the rear, removing the need for columns – leaving uninterrupted views along the large glass expanse. To service access to the garden, full height, slim-frame doors were strategically introduced along the glazing.
At the centre point of the floor plan sits the large wood burning stove - able to rotate, the stove forms the true centre of the house – in both function and geometry.